Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Jock Talk

Kimball High got the winter sports season underway this past week with their wrestling team going to Bayard for dual action on Thursday and to Akron, Colorado on Saturday for a tournament. Here at home, the basketball teams played host to a four school tournament with divisions for both girls and boys.

It was encouraging to see the good turn out of fans from Potter-Dix, Morrill, and Dundy County-Stratton, as well as the Kimball home town fans. Kimball Activities Director Ken Smith and his staff of volunteers did a good job of organizing and over seeing the event and everything ran smoothly.

The schedule on Saturday was moved to the use of both gymnasiums with the threat of stormy weather and the hope of getting the out-of-town teams and fans home earlier and safe. The limited stands in the south gymnasium were filled for the Kimball-Potter/Dix boy’s game Saturday as once again the fans turned out. Potter-Dix certainly has some strong fan following and they are to be commended as their teams go up against the larger schools.

Dundy County-Stratton won both the girl’s and boy’s team championships and they both play all-out from start to finish. Their girls are pre-season ranked number 7 in the state D-1 rankings. Their boys are very good once again but you gotta hand it to Morrill for almost pulling the upset in the title game won by DCS 52-46. You also have to think that the Kimball boys could have possibly been the tournament champs if they would have had a full roster as they led Morrill until the final 3 minutes before losing 46-39, and they did this with a good share of their varsity crew sitting out. This same group will also miss the two games this weekend, including Morrill once again. You have to feel a bit sad for coach Luke Dea and the players who were good-to-go with the realization they maybe could have had a 4-0 start to the season.

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The junior high wrestlers closed out their season at Mitchell this past Monday, and the junior high girls basketball team will finish out their season today (Thursday) here at home hosting Mitchell.

On the high school level, both girls and boys basketball teams are at home Friday hosting Perkins County with Jv games scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. but this could change depending on if Kimball can field teams, or go to 2 quarter games. On Saturday Kimball is at Morrill with JV game times set for 3 p.m. start, followed by varsity play.

Lots of wrestling this Saturday on the home mats as Kimball hosts their Invitational Tournament. Wrestling will begin at 9:30 so you fans make plans to be there to cheer on all the young wrestlers.

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Our Big Mike Daum is still making National headlines and was named the Summit League Player of the Week for the consecutive week. He has won this honor 14 times in his career with South Dakota State University which is 2nd most in league history.

In the Jackrabbits 82-50 win over Northern Iowa Mike scored 24 points and had 11 rebounds. He was 11/12 at the line. In the Jack’s 75-40 win over UMKC Mike had 26 points and 18 rebounds. This was his 7th double-double in the young season.